‘Merchant services’ is the name given to a category of financial services intended for use by businesses. More specifically, ‘merchant services’ refers to the service that enables a business to accept an electronic payment by use of the customer's credit card, debit card, prepaid card, gift card, or electronic check.
Many businesses are accepting electronic payments by way of the customer's credit card, debit card, prepaid card, gift card, or electronic check. By accepting multiple forms of payment, businesses give their customers payment options that improve their buying power. In addition, merchant services with electronic payment processing can be a solution that is efficient and convenient to the business. Merchant services can help a business improve cash flow by ensuring timely automatic deposits to their account and increasing the average sale. While merchant services offer many benefits to the business, it also comes at an expense.
A merchant acquirer is a company offering debit card, credit card and electronic check acceptance services for merchants, or businesses. Often a merchant acquirer is partially or wholly owned by a bank, meaning, sometimes a bank itself offers acquiring services. Merchant acquirers charge the merchants a number of fees which may include: a set up fee for each merchant account, a monthly rent for the Point Of Sale (POS) terminal (if it is not owned by the merchant) which is usually equivalent to approximately (30) thirty to fifty (50) dollars per month, a percentage fee on each transaction, a transaction fee for each transaction, a per item authorization fee for each transaction, a monthly maintenance fee for each account, and a monthly minimum discount fee.
Each of these fees varies from one merchant acquirer to the next and from one transaction to the next. As examples, the percentage fee is often much lower for debit card transactions than for credit card transactions. Sometimes there is an additional fixed fee per transaction, which may range from ten (10) to twenty (20) cents. Many merchant acquirers assess a specific monthly maintenance fee. Furthermore, a business may be assessed a mid-qualified or a non-qualified fee for each transaction. The costs of these services vary greatly based on a host of factors from who offers the service, the type of business needing the service, how the card is accepted, what equipment is used, what information is imputed during the card transaction, when the transaction is settled, and what specific credit or debit card is used.
With the numerous fees and various pricing schemes, businesses are easily confused about the prices involved with regard to acquiring merchant services. Different merchant acquirers often provide pricing proposals that are vague and inconsistent, creating confusion when a merchant is shopping around for the lowest price for merchant services. Also, because merchant services may be provided by either a bank, an Independent Sales Organization (ISO) or a third party credit card processor, businesses are confused about who offers the merchant services.
As a result of the confusion regarding merchant services, businesses do not know where to shop around for the lowest price when acquiring merchant services. Businesses not only do not have the knowledge, but they also do not have the time to obtain information from every merchant acquirer that is offering merchant services. Accordingly, with the existing number of businesses today that need or will need merchant services, the competitive nature of offering services today is not being met easily or efficiently.
Thus, there is a need for a method of assisting businesses in acquiring merchant services.
The instant invention is designed to address these problems.